WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: SUNY New Paltz makes SUNYAC final

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. -- Friday night's last-minute heroics has SUNY New Paltz playing for the State University of New York Athletic Conference women's basketball championship on its home court today.

The top-seeded Hawks, down three with two minutes to play, went on a closing 11-4 run to beat No. 5 Plattsburgh 63-59.

New Paltz (23-3) takes on No. 2 Geneseo for the title 4 p.m. at the Hawk Center.

The Hawks have only been in the SUNYAC finals only one other time, losing to Cortland in 2010.

Advertisement

With the conference title comes an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.

Geneseo (20-6), which beat New Paltz by 30 points last month, advanced Friday with a 67-51 victory over No. 3 Oswego.

Michelle Valle came off the bench for 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead New Paltz, which also got big contributions from Maliqua Fisher (10 points, four steals), Alex McCullough (10 points), Alyssa Gratien (10 points) and Jeanette Scott (nine points, three blocks).

"To play for the SUNYAC title on our home court. That had always been our goal. I had a good feeling about that," Hawk coach Jamie Seward said.

New Paltz made it interesting, blowing a seven-point lead in the first half and an eight-point advantage with 11:15 remaining.

Kathleen Payne had 23 points for (15-12) Plattsburgh, including a 3-point field goal that put the Cardinals ahead with six minutes left.

The deficit was 55-52 when Fisher converted a McCullough pass. McCullough then buried a 3-pointer with 1:02 to go for the lead.

After a key defensive stop, Valle scored off another McCullough pass and Shannan Walker sank two big foul shots.

A 3-pointer from Brittany Marshall got Plattsburgh within 61-59 with 3.4 seconds left, but Fisher hit two foul shots to clinch the win.

For a Hawks team that seems to like walking a tightrope to victory, it marked their 15th victory in single digits.

"I've been trying to understand this for four and-a-half months. I really don't know," Seward remarked.

"It's like a chess player who can't play until the end-game strategy."

That said, he knew his team was confident.

"We practice the last four minutes -- up six, down six -- from the second week of practice on.

"I felt good," he said about entering those last two minutes. "They would figure out how to get it done."